Green Spot and Yellow Spot Irish Whiskies

I've been a big fan of whiskey since I was a teenager....errrr....I mean 21.  Granted my tastes have evolved from the bottom shelf stuff I use to mix with ginger ale or coke when I began my college career but my love for the brown liquor has been a constant since.

Back in 2005, on my first trip to Ireland, I stopped in at James Fox Cigar and Whiskey Store in Dublin.  I struck up a conversation with a store associate and let them know I was looking for a nice Irish Whiskey, preferably something I could not find back in the States.  The man recommended a whiskey I had never heard of by the name of Green Spot.

Green Spot is a pot stilled Irish Whiskey aged 9 years and produced at Midleton Distillery in County Cork exclusively for Mitchell and Sons of Dublin.

Though I had never heard of it before that visit I was hooked as soon as I got a taste and bought a bottle on the spot.  I have visited or passed through Dublin four times since that initial visit and make a point to pick up another bottle each time. It is honestly the smoothest whiskey I had ever tasted and remains so to this day.

This past summer the lady friend and I took a trip to Italy and had a one day stop over in Dublin on the way home.  I was visiting the duty-free Irish Whiskey Shop at the Dublin airport awaiting our flight and as luck would have it Midleton Distillery had just released Yellow Spot.

Like Green Spot, Yellow Spot is a pot stilled Irish Whiskey but this one is aged 12 years in three oak casks; American bourbon barrels, Spanish sherry butts and Spanish Malaga casks.

I haven't brought myself to open the bottle as of yet as I enjoy the Green Spot so much and only brought one of the Yellow Spot bottles home with me.  I was told it was done in a limited run so I'm not sure how easy it will be to track down another bottle if/when I am in Dublin again and they do not have an American distributor.

For the reputation these whiskies have and for how good they are you'll be hard pressed to find anything this good at the price point (I believe with the conversion they were roughly $60 and $75, respectively). If you're a whiskey fan and ever find yourself in Ireland do yourself a favor and pick up a bottle of one or both of these .  You'll certainly enjoy it.

Are you a bourbon, Scotch or Irish whiskey fan?  What are some of your favorites?